Has De Villiers got it right?
2008-07-11 09:29
Tank Lanning
Cape Town - South African record point scorer Percy Montgomery returns at fullback in place of Conrad Jantjes, who heads to the bench. JP Pietersen is preferred on the right wing to Odwa Ndungane, who drops out of the 22. Bismarck du Plessis replaces injured captain John Smit and Victor Matfield will captain the Springboks on Saturday at the House of Pain in Dunedin. The other change is on the bench where Ruan Pienaar replaces Bolla Conradie
And no change at 8th man or in the front row? Amazed, and appalled, I am...
It is good to see Montgomery back in the side as I think the Boks need his experience and confidence. But to do it at the expense of a man like Jantjes, who has not really put a foot wrong, is quite baffling. Surely it would have made more sense to have moved Jantjes to the wing in place of Ndungane, who definitely had to go? Instead in comes Pietersen, who, according to coach, Peter de Villiers, was in need of conditioning at the beginning of the international season. More like form finding in my book. And given that he has had one Currie Cup game to find that form or conditioning, and it was apparent to all who saw the game that both were still missing, it is beyond comprehension to believe that this is the player that the Bok coach is looking to for backline solutions!
And to leave Joe van Niekerk at No 8, while the likes of Pierre Spies and Ryan Kankowski take in the sights and sounds of Dunedin in their Billabong "casuals" is bordering on the criminal. Call the police people, this coach might need to be put away! Or at least get the man a few recordings of the Sharks and Bulls final Super 14 games...
And forward coach, Gary Gold, can go on as long as he likes about the effectives of the scrum being based on how you get the ball away from it, but he is living in dreamland. It is how you perform come scrum time that determines the effectiveness of the ball you get from the scrum. If you get the ball, that is! Even the boys I saw playing Craven Week rugby in Pretoria this week know that!
And the bottom line is that we took strain in the scrums last week. If it was because CJ had flu in the week leading up to the Test, then say that. But do not try and defend the Bok scrum. Word on the street is that it is because CJ is suffering a neck injury that has weakened his right arm sufficiently enough to effect his right arm strength - the arm he binds with. But that is just rumour, and I hope he turns his game around this week. I would have liked to have seen the "Beast" take his place at loosehead instead of Gurthro Steenkamp, but I also cannot fault a coaching team that wants to give the same two props another crack.
Either way, I am not very confident, though. Smit is a monumental loss to this Bok scrum. Not only is he the man keeping this side together as a captain, but he is a tremendously strong scrummager. Bismarck is an excellent hooker who does an enormous amount of work round the field, but he is no Smit when it comes to pure scrummaging. I am afraid we are going to see more drama up front...
But this is just my take on the selection. We want to get South Africa's opinion, so in continuation with our relatively new Sport24 tradition, we open the "Great Friday Debate" by asking you to post your comments below. Who knows, De Villiers might even read them...
Your thoughts?
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